After remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, a remake of Resident Evil 4 seems all but inevitable. The fourth game in the survival horror franchise notably strayed further from the horror roots and more towards action. But it appears that a remake of it may provide a course correction, bringing the game back to survival horror. As the report from Fanbyte stresses, none of this is confirmed, but it seems likely that a Resident Evil 4 remake will head in a new direction.
Even the existence of the game’s remake has yet to be confirmed. However, the success of the Resident Evil 2 Remake seems to have set off a chain reaction. The fourth game still holds up, as it has seen several remasters over the years, but it did originally come out in 2005. That’s now quite a while ago, and it sounds like this year the Resident Evil 4 remake will officially get revealed.
But reportedly this remake will arrive as more of a reimagining, similar to the remake of Final Fantasy VII (though hopefully not in multiple parts). Why the major changes? After all, the previous two Resident Evil remakes stayed mostly faithful to the source material. Here, it all starts with development.
Allegedly, Capcom placed M-Two Studio in charge of development in the hopes of getting Shinji Mikami to return. Mikami developed the original Resident Evil 4, but subsequently founded Tango Gameworks and made the Evil Within horror series. He ultimately decided to stay with Tango. As such, Capcom took over development of the remake from M-Two and decided to make some changes.
The first reported change is that the Resident Evil 4 remake will take place primarily at night, to make it spookier. The original had protagonist Leon Kennedy arriving in a plagued village during the day. However, it seems Capcom decided to draw on a discarded demo for the original that focused more on overt horror.
Other changes will focus on the story and characters. Notably, the recent VR release of Resident Evil 4 already started making character changes, removing sexualized and flirtatious moments involving sidekick Ashley Graham. The remake will apparently expand characters’ roles in the story.
The last set of changes involves the supplemental material in the game. Versions of Resident Evil each came with side campaigns involving anti-villain Ada Wong. The first of these was Assignment: Ada which was replaced by Separate Ways. It seems that M-Two had already begun created new side content for the game to provide a definitive take on what Ada Wong was up to exactly.
Again, all of this info about the Resident Evil 4 remake has yet to be confirmed. Multiple credible sources have pointed to a remake of the game and stressed that it will focus more on horror. So take the news with at least a few grains of salt and maybe a droplet of Los Plagas for good measure. Ada would be proud.
